2022 F1 United States Grand Prix preview

Spherical 19 of the 2022 Formulation One World Championship, the US Grand Prix, takes place this weekend on the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

The race for the title within the 2022 Drivers’ Championship has already been determined, with Pink Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen topped champion a fortnight in the past on the Japanese Grand Prix.

Nonetheless, the battle for second remains to be very a lot alive, with Pink Bull’s Sergio Perez in second and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc only one level behind in third. The battle for the Constructors’ Championship can also be alive, although Pink Bull is nearly sure to seize the title in Austin.

Regardless of being one of many newer areas on the F1 calendar—the primary race was in 2012—COTA has already made a reputation for itself as a observe able to exhibiting off F1 vehicles at their greatest, primarily because it has been designed particularly with F1 in thoughts.

Particularly, the three.43-mile observe has an eclectic mixture of 20 corners, a few of them harking back to corners from previous and current F1 circuits. There are additionally extra quick corners than Spa-Francorchamps and extra sluggish corners than the Hungaroring—a mixture that makes the observe an enormous problem for each groups and drivers. Nonetheless, the uphill hairpin of Flip 1 stands out as COTA’s signature nook.

The observe floor is without doubt one of the bumpiest due to subsidence, and regardless that it’s both floor down or resurfaced throughout the winter to take care of this, the altering location and severity of the bumps all year long means they’re nonetheless a problem. Unpredictable climate will also be a difficulty right here, although this weekend’s forecast for Austin, we needs to be in for fantastic however cool situations throughout each Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race.

Pirelli has nominated its C2 because the White onerous, C3 because the Yellow medium, and C4 because the Pink smooth. Groups ran a two-stop technique final 12 months, however with a very new vary of tires, we’d see totally different methods this 12 months.

Going into the weekend, Verstappen holds an unbeatable lead within the Drivers’ Championship with 366 factors. Perez is second with 253 factors and Leclerc third with 252 factors. Within the Constructors’ Championship, Pink Bull sits on 619 factors, versus the 454 of Ferrari and 387 of Mercedes-Benz AMG. Final 12 months’s winner in Austin was Verstappen, driving for Pink Bull.